How to avoid making a soggy bottomed quiche
I was given a really good tip today from a quiche maker. She sells quiches to her local deli. “Do you know how to avoid soggy pastry?” No, I didn’t. I never make quiche as D is not a fan. I love it and occasionally buy one for a girly lunch. Mysteriously Danny always vanishes with the remains. “Well there is no need to bake the pastry blind (pre-bake). All I do is make my pastry and line the buttered dish. Using a fork, prick the base in several places. Then brush the pastry with beaten egg. Let this harden until it is...
read moreExtend the life of your vegetables
“Ohh,” said Danny peering at a box of purple sprouting broccoli, “Will ours be ready soon?” We were waiting at our butchers, Fred Fitzpatrick’s. As I went through our list, Danny picked up a tired cauliflower. “You can have that, Danny. It’s too floppy to sell now.” Danny put it gently back. He didn’t want a floppy cauliflower. “Put it in some cold water and it will firm up,” Fred smiled. I’d heard about this trick for runner beans but never tested out the theory. So we...
read moreThe lazy man’s secret that adds extra pazazz to any dish
When we go away on holiday we search for two types of shops, hardware shops and food emporiums. The latter can be supermarkets, outdoor markets, greengrocers or delicatessen. If the country is sunnier than England, we are looking for locally produced herbs and spices. Perhaps it is something to do with the sunshine or the processing but these herbs are so much more pungent and last a lot longer than most of the dried herbs available in the UK. Fifteen years ago I went to Crete for a month and found some wonderful blends of local herbs in a...
read moreIn the bag roast chicken recipe
My friend Carol keeps on mentioning how good game cooked in a bag is. I vaguely remember people using roasting bags in the eighties. Everybody was using them for a few months and suddenly they just fizzled out. Actually, I hate to admit it but I thought the attraction was that using roasting bag was to stop your oven getting so dirty. Until last weekend, I had no idea of their magical effect on food. Carol’s advice is sound. Everything that she recommends is good, from tiny tomato sandwiches on a hot summer’s day to her own herb...
read moreItalian sweet chestnut liqueur recipe
We make a wide range of fruit liqueurs every year but have never made a nut one. I was delighted to find this recipe for Italian sweet chestnut liqueur when I was nosing about on the Internet last week. The promise of this had Danny sitting, knife and chestnut in hand, for a good hour and a half last night. Shelling chestnuts is a bore. It’s fiddly. It’s very frustrating if you have bought a batch with a few bad ones as you can’t tell the state of the kernel within from the external appearance of the nut. But if you can tempt...
read moreOld Fashioned Apple Jelly Recipe
This morning I decided to make apple jelly with the apples that our friend Anne Mary gave us last week. They are now in the jelly bag, left to drip for the rest of the day. (What is a “jelly bag”? See tips and tricks below). We always use cooking apples for apple jelly so that it is not too sweet and much more adaptable. For years I only thought of jelly as an accompaniment to meat. The jars opened and enjoyed but usually lost in the depths of the fridge. I cringe now at the thought of the great jellies that must have been wasted...
read more
FD